The future of rotorcraft, the air defence market and challenges facing the Royal Air Force

This week in the Weekly Defence Podcast, we discuss current and future rotorcraft programmes with Bell, look at the state of the air defence market, speak to the Royal Air Force about their current challenges and hear from our sponsor Nammo.

• News Round Up (01:07)

For the news round, air domain reporter Tim Martin is fresh from a briefing with MBDA on its annual results; land reporter Kate Martyr provides an update on Rheinmetall Canada’s new weaponised configuration of its Mission Master UGV, which was showcased during a demonstration event held in South Africa; and editor-in-chief Richard Thomas looks at future anti-ship missile developments.

Meanwhile, Helen Haxell speaks to AVM Gerry Mayhew, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, about the future direction of the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) in the lead-up to the Air and Space Power conference, which will take place 17-18 July 2019 in London.

• Shephard Analysis – Air Defence Market (19:20)

Helen takes some time to sit down with our Shephard Plus director of analyst Matt Smith and analyst Ilker Aktaşoğlu to talk about their findings and predictions regarding the current state of the air defence market.

The team discuss the dynamism of the short-range air defence segment, look at emerging requirements Canada and Norway, and consider the effect the weaponisation of consumer drones has had on the sector.

• Interview – Bell (28:12)

Helen talks to Steve Mathias, Bell’s VP for global military sales and strategy, who provides an update on the company’s bid for the US Navy’s Advanced Helicopter Training System (TH-XX), progress of the flight trials of the V-280 Valor tiltrotor and longer term helicopter technology development at Bell

• Industry Voice (40:10)

Tony Skinner, our VP of content, talks to Endre Lunde, SVP of Communications for Nammo, as well as David Rolen, Nammo’s director of business development and marketing for the US, about the recent US budget news in this week’s Industry Voice.   

Music and sound mixing provided by Fred Prest